OGDEN, Utah, Oct. 29, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — A fight in an Ogden park late Saturday night ended with what police are calling a suspicious death.
Ogden police officers, detectives and CSI responded to the scene in a corner of Lester Park at 700 E. 24th St. shortly before 11 p.m.
OPD tweeted that the area was blocked off while police investigated and stated “anyone with information into an altercation in the area of 700 E. 24th St, which resulted in a death, is encouraged to call 801-395-8221.”
The department updated on Facebook Sunday morning that there was a verbal altercation with people in a car that drove through the area where people were walking back and forth from a Halloween party to the park across the street.
“Individuals in the car came back to the area and a fight ensued,” the post said. “Officers were called to a large gathering/fight in progress and stabilized the scene.”
Officers located a male who was unresponsive. Ogden Fire and Medical responded and transported the victim to an area hospital, where he was later declared deceased.
The name of the deceased will not be released until after the completion of the autopsy and next of kin has been notified. The autopsy is scheduled for Monday.
Over 30 people were witnesses, and interviews and statements were obtained, police said.
Crime scene tape bordered a sliver of the park where the incident took place — or at least where the body was found. And crime scene experts carefully navigated the carpet of fallen leaves, measuring this and taking photos of that.
The Ogden Alano Club, directly across the street from that corner of the park, was enjoying a Halloween party until death cast a pall on the festivities. As the police came looking for possible witnesses, people in Halloween costumes filtered out of the building and formed a somber group on the sidewalk. Chairs were set around a make-shift fire pit that helped ward off the late-October chill.
“We were having a great time dancing,” a woman said. “A lot of people showed up. And then this…” Her voice trailed off for a moment, then, “It really put a damper on things … I hope he’ll be OK.”
She didn’t seem to know it was too late for the unidentified victim to be OK.
Someone asked, “Do they know who shot him?”
“Oh, it wasn’t a shooting,” she said. “I heard these people came and were fighting with bats, and they took him out, you know?”
One week ago, on Oct. 21, Ogden police were investigating a fatal shooting at 800 E. 27th St., just a few blocks away. They had received a call of “shots fired” and arrived to find a dead man, crumpled on the steps of a home in which he did not reside.
On that Saturday, neighbors gathered to watch from a distance as the body was covered and finally removed from the scene, and police officers scoured the area for shell casings and any other evidence.
“I think it’s probably a drug deal,” a neighbor said at the time, adding, “I just want to feel safe. I just want my family to be protected.”
Another neighbor overheard and started pointing down the street. “That’s a drug house there, and that one down there…”
As the neighbors talked, they speculated that as the crackdown on the Rio Grande neighborhood in Salt Lake City continues, a lot of people are moving into other areas, including Ogden.
The investigation into the Oct. 21 shooting is still active, but police did say a person of interest was interviewed and told investigators that the deceased, Adalberto Farias-Diaz, was shot in self-defense during an exchange with a second man.
Now, a week later and just a few blocks away, several women sit in the cold around a fire pit, in the flashing lights of police cars, and worry about their neighborhood and the likelihood of “retaliation” by some unknown people for whatever it was that went down in the park across the street.
Gephardt Daily will have more on these incidents as information becomes available.
Ogden Police are asking if anyone left the area Saturday evening and did not get an opportunity to talk with a detective or you may have witnessed something that may assist in the investigation please email [email protected] or call the non-emergency line 801-629-8221.
